Her stunning recording debut in 1959, when she was in her mid-twenties, aspiring to be a classical pianist, and from the get-go — as per Daphne A. Brooks’ sleeve-notes — ‘an astonishingly daring, dazzlingly confident, endlessly adventurous artist with a deep well of formidable instrumentality up her sleeve as well as a wide and robust, rich and varied knowledge of jazz, blues, American songbook, folk and spiritual standards and aesthetics.’
Several signature tunes here already, too.
A previously unreleased recording made at the Newport Jazz Festival in July,1966.
The Amazing Nina Simone, Nina Simone At Town Hall, Nina At Newport, Forbidden Fruit, Nina At The Village Gate, Nina Simone Sings Ellington, Nina Simone At Carnegie Hall, Folksy Nina.
All eight original LPs, plus twenty-nine bonus tracks.
Two World Pacifics from 1959, The Swingers! and A Gasser! (featuring Annie Ross on her own). Straight songs and hip new renditions of great stuff like Little Niles, Four, Airegin, Now’s The Time.
A song-cycle life of Aisha, youngest wife of the prophet Mohammed, co-written by the Armenian-German guitarist and Julia Hulsmann, performed together with her trio and Serbian singer Yelena Kuljic.
The great bassist’s first LP as leader, released in 1978, just after the demise of the Revolutionary Ensemble.
Fact magazine reckons it’s one of ‘twenty essential records from the 70s underground’: ‘a beautiful set, with James Newton’s flute giving the quartet performances a breathy lilt, while the interaction between Sirone on bass and Muneer Bernard Fennell (who also appears on Abdullah’s wonderful Life Force from 1979) on cello is lovely, particularly when Sirone is playing arco — parts of Circumstances feel like they’re levitating on lambent strings. Famoudou Don Moye (of The Art Ensemble Of Chicago) is a sympathetic, apposite percussionist too. Yet perhaps the most potent moment on the album comes when Sirone is playing solo, singing out from and stretching the parameters of the instrument, running rivulets of melody down the instrument’s spine on Breath Of Life. The closing Libido ends things on a graceful, melancholic note, the strings and flute harmonising across gentle phrases.’
Painstakingly reissued, in a die-cut craft-card sleeve, with a printed inner, and two postcards.
Perfect condition.
Home Cookin’, Crazy! Baby, Midnight Special, Back At The Chicken Shack, Softly As A Summer Breeze.
‘Classic Vinyl’ series.
With Cannonball Adderley, Duke Jordan and co.
Kicking off with Tribute To Brownie; and extending his tradition of hard bop trumpet-playing.
‘Three adventurous, spacious displays of Smith’s unique and innovative trumpet — besides percussion, tuned percussion and flute — right at the crest of his induction into the pantheon of AACM greats. A candid snapshot of one of the most vital musicians to extend the jazz tradition, testing his craft and artistry with a bright, pure-toned sensibility and deeply soulful melodic imagination.’
At the turn of the sixties, pushing at the soul-jazz envelope (and tripping out on Eleanor Rigby) — with Lee Morgan, Julian Priester, Bennie Maupin, Melvin Sparks, and Leo Morris.
Classic Vinyl Series.
CD from BGP.